Economic Principles

Economic Principles

Victorians want excellent hospitals, TAFEs, schools and public transport, a strong social safety net, a clean and protected environment, and excellent public services.

These are the things that create opportunities for all of us to live a good life.

We need caring and responsible governments to deliver for all Victorians, not just those that can afford to pay the most, that’s what Victorians expect from a good society.

These are the Victorian Greens’ economic principles for making sure our economy works for all of us.

The economy serves people - not the other way around.

Financial indicators do not tell us anything about the wellbeing of our society, the health of our democracy, or the wellbeing of our environment. We believe it’s never good enough to implement a policy that increases our budget surplus but decreases our quality of life or degrades our environment. For Victoria’s economy to continue growing sustainably, it must benefit its people. After all, we live in a society, not just an economy.

The wellbeing of Victorians is central to everything we do.

The Greens have a plan to develop the Victorian Wellbeing Standards in consultation with all Victorians. The Standards would require government to measure and report on how it plans to improve our wellbeing across four main areas: the environment; opportunities for all Victorians; Victoria’s assets and finances; a strong democractic Victoria.

Ending our addiction to harmful revenue

The Greens plan to establish a Parliamentary Inquiry to investigate our sources of income. We will investigate whether our income, like that from gambling or stamp duty is effective, efficient or harmful and if so how to move away to alternative, non-damaging sources of income.

Make our most profitable corporation pay their fair share

The Greens will introduce a bank levy on the biggest banks. The banks have been ripping us off for years and it is time they contributed their fair share. We will also introduce a windfall rezoning tax to ensure the millions of dollars in windfall value made by rezoning land is shared with all Victorians not just given to property developers. Read our detailed plans for a bank levy here and for a Windfall Rezoning tax here

Our assets should stay in our hands

Successive Labor and Liberal governments have handed control of our essential services to private corporations. Some of our most essential services like energy, public transport and roads are now run by profit driven corporations when they should be run for us. Privatisation has failed Victorians. When we own our essential services they benefit all of us and we’re in charge of them, that’s what we expect in a good society.

Spend public money smarter so we save in the long term

Instead of building more prisons, we can use this public money for early-intervention programs that keep people away from crime in the first place. Instead of building more private toll roads, we can improve our strained public transport system and build smarter road projects. We would also take advantage of record-low interest rates to borrow money to build and improve our critical assets and infrastructure for the future. Like, our public transport system, renewable electricity generators, and more public housing.

Victorians need a government that represents all of us, not just the big end of town

The key role of government is to provide a strong social safety net, great public services and, to protect our environment. The reality is that Labor and Liberal governments have been heavily influenced by powerful corporations that make large political donations to gain access to politicians and wield their influence. The result is a system where laws are created to benefit the bottom line of these corporations, rather than laws designed to benefit all of us or protect our environment. The Greens have a plan to transform politics, we want to make sure that our government has people at its focus - always.

We respectfully acknowledge the Traditional Owners of this country as the first inhabitants, and the custodians of the lands where we live and work. We pay tribute to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and give respect to Elders past, present and emerging.